RACE BONUS INFO

The NASCAR Winston Cup Leader Bonus is $70,000 at Martinsville for leading the points and winning the race.(Dale Jarrett last won the award, $10,000 at Daytona) The $340,000 annual award is paid at $10,000 per race to the point leader at the end of each event if he is also the winner. The award increases by $10,000 each week the it goes unclaimed. If the point leader is not the race winner at the end of the year, the balance of the award is distributed among the top-10 finisher in the point standings(4-2-2000)

QUALIFYING, PRACTICE and RESULTS news and links

Penalties UPDATE a rundown: Five teams got caught by NASCAR's new rules concerning tires left on pit road at Martinsville. #24-Jeff Gordon, #22-Ward Burton, #16-Kevin Lepage, #44-Kyle Petty and #36-Ken Schrader – all were forced to start at the end of the longest line on caution-flag restarts(goracing). NASCAR had penalized #99-Jeff Burton and #25-Jerry Nadeau for disregarding a stop sign from an official posted at the pit exit(Gaston Gazette). Jeff Gordon, Ward Burton, Kevin Lepage, Kyle Petty and Ken Schrader served penalties for the tire infraction. NASCAR officials also handed out 10 more penalties for speeding in the pits, pitting too soon, running the pit-road stop sign, passing on the left too soon, passing the pace car and trying to beat the pace car out of the pits(Daily Press)UPDATE: here are a rundown of the penalties accessed at Martinsville: 14 total - Five teams noted above with the new tire rule: #24-Jeff Gordon, #22-Ward Burton, #16-Kevin Lepage, #44-Kyle Petty and #36-Ken Schrader each had to go to the end of the longest line on the restarts for the violation. #26-Jimmy Spencer was caught for speeding on pit road. #26-Spencer, #33-Joe Nemechek, #11-Brett Bodine and #13-Robby Gordon for entering the pits too soon. #1-Steve Park for passing on the left on a restart. #42-Kenny Irwin for passing the pace car. #99-Jeff Burton and #55-Kenny Wallace each were penalized a lap for disobeying the NASCAR official at the end of pit road and entering the track when signaled to stop. Most others were penalized by being sent to the end of the longest line(News and Record)(4-10-2000)

Backup Cars: #16-Kevin Lepage, who wrecked in practice and #13-Robby Gordon who wrecked in 2nd round qualifying will both go to backup cars and fall to the rear of the 43 car field at Martinsville on Sunday. Both took provisionals and will not have to fall too far behind their original starting spots(Gordon was 42nd and Lepage was 39th)(many sources in cluding SpeedVision)(4-9-2000)

Happy Hour was rained out

2nd Round Qualifying is over for the Goody's Body Pain 500 at Martinsville. Six drivers made a 2nd round attempt with none breaking into the top 36. Fastest was #75-Wally Dallenbach at 93.221mph. Of the five drivers who made attempts, two were faster then their first round speeds(#' 14 and 71) and three were slower (#'s 75, 41 and 90). #13-Robby Gordon hit the wall in Turn 3 before he started his qualifying lap. Gordon received a provisional, however, and will start 42nd. Missing the race were: #14-Rick Mast(41st in owners points), #75-Wally Dallenbach, #90-Ed Berrier(45th), and #71-Dave Marcis. For the starting grid, see Total Sports, NOL, That's Racin' and Racin' Network (4-8-2000)

Saturday AM Practice at Martinsville is over. #12-Jeremy Mayfield was the fastest at 93.696mph. The speeds are slower then 1st round. The fastest speed by Mayfield would only be 36th fastest. See the speeds at NOL and Racin' Network(4-8-2000)

Some Qualifying Notes: #42-Kenny Irwin crashed in practice and had to go to a backup car. #32-Scott Pruett has engine problems in practice and changed an engine before qualifying. Geoffrey Bodine is at Martinsville this week, he got the cast off his wrist and plans to test at Richmond Apr 24-25th and race at California on Apr 30th(4-7-2000)

First Round Qualifying is over at Martinsville. #2- Rusty Wallace won the pole with a speed of 94.827mph. His brother Kenny in the #55-Square-D/Cooper Lighting Chevy is on the outside pole. Brother Mike won the CTS pole. If things stayed the same, the following drivers would miss the race: #14-Rick Mast(41st in owners points), #75-Wally Dallenbach, #90-Ed Berrier(45th), and #71-Dave Marcis. See the results at NOL and Racin' Network(4-7-2000)

Friday Practice at Martinsville is over. #28-Ricky Rudd is fastest at 94.789mph. Slowest is #32-Scott Pruett at 91.575mph. Check my Provisional Page for Owners Points standing and where the drivers stand. Being the eighth race, #66-Darrell Waltrip and #44-Kyle Petty have a provisional to use if needed. Track record is 95.275mph set last year by Tony Stewart. See the practice speeds at NOL and the Racin' Network(4-7-2000)

How to break a tie? When drivers are tied for a starting spot during qualifying, it is broken by owners points standings(not drivers). For provisionals standings see the Jayski Provisional Status page(2-20-2000)

Links: Practice speeds, qualifying and results can be found at these sites:
NASCAR Online,

TRACK/RACE NEWS

Interesting Money Stuff: At the Goody’s 500 in Martinsville a week ago, the alleged purse was $2,288,867. The actual payout was $1,748,540, meaning that the percentage of the "posted awards" that were paid, as opposed to "posted," was 76.4 percent(Gaston Gazette)(4-17-2000)

Records: After 500 laps on Martinsville's 1/2 mile paperclip-shaped oval the Goody's Body Pain 500 records show there were 14 lead changes among 8 different drivers and 14 cars finished on the lead lap. There were also a record 17 caution flags totaling a whopping 111 laps run under yellow due to the short time even caution laps require to complete. After all this Mark Martin's margin of victory was still only 1.5 seconds over teammate Jeff Burton(Speedway Illustrated) check out their first issue cover at the site(4-10-2000)

Cautions at Martinsville: The 17 cautions broke the event record and tied the track record for yellow flags(Total Sports)(4-10-2000)

Helping Out: Martinsville Speedway is making several improvements for handicapped race fans. A new handicapped section has been added in turns one and two, and golf carts will be dedicated to carrying handicapped individuals from the handicapped parking lots to the grandstands. The new handicapped section will be at the top of the concrete bleacher sections in turns one and two just in front of the new Old Dominion
Tower. The speedway will sell tickets for wheelchairs patrons and a chair seat beside the wheelchair for anyone accompanying a handicapped fan. Tickets in the new handicapped section will be $50 each and are now on sale for the Goody’s Body Pain 500 on Sunday, April 9. In the past, the Henry County Baptist Association has provided golf cart rides if requested. Now the speedway will have golf carts dedicated to rides for the handicapped(Martinsville Speedway)(3-24-2000)

Martinsville Purse: the Cup drivers will shoot for the biggest purse in the 54-year history of Martinsville Speedway in the Goody’s Body Pain 500. The purse of $2,168,867 for the Goody’s Body Pain 500 on Sunday, April 9 is
$260,881 more than the purse paid one year ago and is well over twice as much as the purse for the 1995 race(Martinsville Speedway Newsletter)(3-17-2000)

Martinsville Grand Marshal: Stewart Smith will be the Grand Marshal for the Goody's Body Pain NASCAR Winston Cup race on Sunday, April 9. He is Vice President of Merchandising for Thomas & Howard of Columbia, S.C. Thomas & Howard was founded in 1897 and serves over 850 customers in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. For privately held companies in South Carolina, Thomas and Howard ranked ninth in business sales last year. And some lucky fan will be the Honorary Starter for the Goody's Body Pain 500. The 2000 winner of the Goody's Body Pain/Martinsville Speedway Official Starter Sweepstakes will be waving the green flag to start the Goody's Body Pain 500. The annual contest gathers over 50,000 entries from locations across the country where Goody's Powders are sold. The Goody's Official Starter receives an all-expense paid trip to Martinsville, hotel accommodations and an Official Starter's dinner in their honor. The winner will participate in pre-race ceremonies, start the race from the flagstand, enjoy a front row seat in the Goody's suite during the race and take part in post-race Victory Lane ceremonies. Last year's winner was North Carolina resident Teresa Keen(Martinsville Speedway PR)(3-14-2000)

How to Calculate Track Speeds: use the formula Speed = Distance divided by Time. Distance is Track Length, and Lap Time into Hours. Once hour is 3600 seconds, so the calculation for a 48 second lap at Daytona(2.5 miles) would be: Speed = 2.5 x (3600/48), = 2.5 x 75 = 187.500mph. For a 19 second lap at Bristol(.533 miles): Speed = .533 x (3600/19), = .533 x 189.474 = a speed of 100.990mph

DRIVER/TEAM NEWS

Sadler to run Martinsville: Elliott Sadler plans to go the full 500 laps this Sunday at Martinsville Speedway in the #21 CITGO Ford, a week after suffering cuts on his left shoulder after a crash at Texas. No plans to have a relief driver(Total Sports)(4-7-2000)

Did ya Know? Three drivers collected their first Winston Cup starts at Martinsville: Dale Jarrett (4/29/84 - started 24th and finished 14th), Mike Skinner (4/27/86 - started 27th and finished 22nd) and Stacy
Compton (4/21/86 - started ninth and finished 33rd). And....Lee Petty holds the record for the driver that started the farthest back at Martinsville to win a race. He started 24th in the 1959 Virginia 500(Speed Magazine)(4-4-2000)

#60 Driver at Martinsville? UPDATE 3: hearing that CTS driver Jimmy Hensley will drive the #60 Power Team Chevy at Martinsville next week(3-31-2000)UPDATE: #60 owner Joe Bessey said a decision will be made Monday on who will drive the car at Martinsville. Bessey says he's considering a few drivers, including Jimmy Hensley and Rich Bickle and he is considering driving the car himself(Roanoke Times)(4-2-2000)UPDATE 2: Being told that the driver won't be Jimmy HensleyUPDATE 3: Rich Bickle will drive the #60 at Martinsville(Winston Cup Today Radio - real audio)(4-3-2000)

Rusty's 500th: Rusty Wallace, driver of the #2 Miller Lite Taurus, will be making the 500th start of his Winston Cup career this weekend in the Goody's Body Pain 500 at Martinsville Speedway(Ford PR)(4-3-2000)

Gordon Streak continues: Jeff Gordon has gone 12 races without a Top-Five finish. This is the longest that Gordon has gone without a Top-Five in his 230-race NASCAR Winston Cup Series career(4-2-2000)

Craven to skip Texas UPDATE: hearing Ricky Craven and the #50 Midwest Transit team will skip Texas but return to MartinsvilleUPDATE - Crew Chief: The #50 Midwest Transit Chevy team named Greg Connor as their crew chief. Connor has been a crew chief with the Junie Donlavey and Cale Yarborough teams in the past. Driver Ricky Craven and Connor plan to test at Greenville Pickens or Martinsville to get familiar with each other(RPM2Nite)(3-28-2000)

Broken Bones, Concussion, Back

California

Rich Bickle

PAINT SCHEME NEWS

STATS and STUFF

Stats: Only five times in NASCAR's modern era(1972-present) has the eventual champion not won by the sixth race of the season. Those champions were Benny Parsons in 1973, Terry Labonte in 1984 and 1996, Darrell Waltrip in 1985 and Dale Jarrett in 1999. Winners after the first six 2000 races were Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt, Ward Burton and Rusty Wallace(4-2-2000)

Top Tens: There have been 24 different Cup drivers(no new drivers at Texas) score a Top-10 in 2000.....1999's total was 40 and 1998's total number was 41(4-2-2000)

Lap Leader/Bonus Points: 34 drivers(add #5-Labonte, #26-Spencer, #32-Pruett, #33-Nemechek and #42-Irwin after Texas) have led at least one Winston Cup lap in 2000. To see who has led laps and who leads in the bonus points, see my Bonus Points Leaders Page(4-2-2000)

1999 winners who have not won in 2000: Terry Labonte, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Joe Nemechek and John Andretti are the drivers who earned victories in 1999 and have not won yet in 2000. Three drivers who won in 1998 Bobby Hamilton, Jeremy Mayfield and Ricky Rudd, have not won since(4-7-2000)

No Wins Ever.... Some regular drivers in Winston Cup who have never won a Cup race and how many starts they have:

Winners: 1999 was the fifth straight year that there have been 11 different winners in a season (1995-99). Every winner in 1999 was from a multi-car team. The last time a single-car team scored a victory was by Ricky Rudd at Martinsville in September 1998(NOL)(11-24-1999)

UPDATE: Jeff Burton was the first driver to win from a provisional starting spot EVER at New Hampshire in 1999 and that is the farthest back any driver has won from since Kyle Petty won from 37th at Dover in June 1995(in 1995 37th was not a provisional starting spot). Bill Elliott also won from 38th spot in the 1988 Pepsi 400. In fact ALL the provisional starters for the race finished in the top 25 at NHIS(7-11-1999) -- UPDATE: Add Bobby Labonte as the 2nd ever provisional winners by winning the 1999 NAPA 500 at Atlanta(11-21-1999)